"Be still and know that I am God..." -Psalm 46:10a
Life for me over this past year... past few years even, has been very chaotic. It feels like just as things calm down, another storm hits and I'm left spinning in the aftermath of it all.
Somedays it feels like I cannot even grasp my own reality. Everything is moving so fast, and I have absolutely no control. Those are the times when I feel the most disconnected from the world around me, mainly God.
I find myself in a victim mentally almost, getting angry at my circumstances and the lack of control that I have. I begin to wonder how I will be able to keep going, and whether or not I can even do it. "Why is this happening to me?"
In those times, my eyes are focused on me. How I will get through it, why I am going through this, what is going to happen to me if I can't figure out how to fix my problems.
But what good does all of that do? I stress out how to handle my chaos, I begin to worry that my strength will not be enough... I am focused on myself, and in the end needlessly worrying about things that I forget are already taken care of, and it strips me of my joy.
It says in Matthew 6:25-34 that God is taking care of us and our every need. When we are worried about our circumstances, and focused on what is going on around us, we are neglecting the fact that God is the one who is taking care of us and our every need, and we are called to rest in that truth and not waste our energies worrying about how we are going to handle it because we know God already has.
Where our eyes are fixed plays a huge role in our lives. The chaos seems to be a little extra overwhelming when we are inwardly focused. But when our eyes and minds are fixed above as we are told to do in Colossians 3, we aren't so focused on our lack of strength, but we are calmed by God's strength.
"Be still and know that I am God."
That isn't a suggestion or advice, but a command. This is the answer to all of our questions. The solution to our problems. In Romans 8:28 it says "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" We know that God is in control , we know that he is working all things together. We are called to rest in that knowledge and in that peace.
"Be still..."
In the midst of all of the chaos of our lives, we are called to rest. While the world around us is spinning, and we are getting motion sickness we are called to peace. We know that God is in control, and yet we still try to keep up with the chaos as though we have any say in what is to happen. But God tells us to be still. He tells us to take time to rest in His presence to set aside the head spinning daily battles and to trust that He has already won the war.
"...And know"
While we are called to know that God is in control, even more so we are called to know God. I mean, how can you trust someone you don't even know? God tells us to be still and know that He is God, but what good does that do us if we don't even know WHO God is? I encourage you to think about, especially if you are someone who struggles to trust God, consider, Do you know God? Do you have a personal relationship with Him? Do you know what the Bible says about his character? Have you experienced His attributes personally? How can you trust Him, if you do not truly, and personally know him?
Living joyfully starts from that. Once you know who God is, and you build a personal relationship with Him, you begin to develop trust in/with Him. You not only know about His kept promises, but you experience them, and they become real to you. HE becomes real to you. Honestly, I have come to realize that is the first step in true joy.
Joy is tied in so closely with hope, and trust, but those are rooted in relationship. How can you have true hope for your future if you do not trust the God who holds it. But how do you truly trust the God who holds your future if you do not know the God who holds your future.
It all starts with knowing God. Not just knowing about God.
Once we know God, we can begin to trust God. When we build our relationship with Him and learn to trust Him, we are able to learn more of what it means to have joy. We can find our comforts in His presence, and find hope in knowing that He has never let us down therefore He never will.
That joy, and that relationship builds a courage within us, and it radiates out of us. People see the difference in someone who loves the Lord personally, and someone who does not know the Lord. The closer you get to Him the more evident it is. It shows in the way you live. Knowing God is what drives our joy. It is how we know it is true joy, and not temporal happiness. It affects every aspect of our lives.
We begin to no longer live for the approval of others, but for the Lord's approval as we learn what pleases Him, and it pours out of us as it becomes our instinct the closer we grow to Him. We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17 of the new creation we become as we grow closer to Him.
In the first entry of this series we talked about what Joy is, and we analyzed a quote from Christianity.com that said,
"Biblical joy is choosing to respond to external circumstances with inner contentment and satisfaction, because we know that God will use these experiences to accomplish His work in and through our lives."
The second half of Psalm 46:10 says "I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" We are able to be still, and rest in the fact that our God is in control of all things, and in the end if we are seeking after Him, and fighting to know Him, and if we truly do know him, we know that the end is an outcome glorifying to Him.
As we are being transformed into those new creations, into images of Him, He is being exalted through it. That is what it looks like to live joyfully. We live resting in Him, being transformed into a new creation: into his image, and we can confidently live in joy knowing that there is nothing out of His control and He will be glorified through it no matter what.
Truly knowing the Lord, and resting in that is what it looks like to live joyfully.
{Do you know the Lord? What do you know about Him? Does your life reflect that?}
-Truthie M.